CARDIOLOGY
A Model Lab
What if 3D rotational angiography could do the work of a CT scan ?
In the catheterization lab Children ’ s Hospital Colorado congenital interventional cardiologists Jenny Zablah Alabi , MD , and Gareth Morgan , MD , are leveraging 3D rotational angiography in ways never described , using software and segmentation techniques Dr . Zablah largely developed herself . With them , their multidisciplinary team is creating detailed images of vessels and airways , life-size 3D printed models and virtual reality-based animations that place interventionists inside a beating heart .
The patient was 4 months old , weighing just 10 pounds . She was born with transposition of the great arteries . The repair was successful , but it left her with progressive severe stenosis , a common complication .
Pediatric cardiac interventionist Jenny Zablah Alabi , MD , explains the procedure using a life-size 3D model she printed in her office . She points out the pulmonary arteries . They ’ re hardly thicker than a hairpin . A second model depicts the patient ’ s heart postcatheterization , detailed enough to show latticework of stents Dr .
Working with InWorks , Dr . Zablah uses 3DRA data to generate different types of models for different purposes . For families , she prints basic models in her office that help them understand the before-and-after of their child ’ s procedure .
Zablah threaded up through the femoral artery and opened like tiny umbrellas at the areas of stenosis .
Congenital interventional cardiologist Gareth Morgan , MD , considers the models . “ The company that manufactured our imaging system didn ’ t know it had this sort of capability . They didn ’ t even realize it was possible .”
Updated just more than a year ago with what Dr . Morgan calls “ all the bells and whistles ,” the system is one of the most powerful and capable on the market . Drs . Zablah and Morgan are figuring out how to leverage that capability in ways that go far beyond the commercial specs .
“ We ’ re squeezing out every drop ,” he says .
WORKING NEW ANGLES
Three-dimensional rotational angiography , or 3DRA , has been a staple of catheterization labs for years . It ’ s typically used for procedural planning and sometimes guidance , layered on standard biplane angiograms to ensure accuracy .
8 | CHILDREN ’ S HOSPITAL COLORADO